Tag: reading

Readers Will Agree – Everything is Tuberculosis

Lynn: John Green is angry and by the time readers finish this new venture into adult non-fiction, Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection (Crash Course/Penguin Random, 2025), they will be angry too! Green, a true star of YA literature, has moved lately into adult books and this non-fiction examination of tuberculosis, its history, impact, and on-going global dominance, is eye-opening and disturbing. It is also a very personal story about Green’s meeting with Henry, a young TB patient in Sierra Leone. Green becomes friends with Henry and the progression of his disease is a centerpiece for the book.

TB has been part of the human story for as long as humans have been around. Signs of it were found in Egyptian mummies and it was present in ancient China and the pre-Columbian Americas. It affected culture, fashion, politics, and literature and it was not clearly understood until the late 1880’s when its cause was identified as a bacteria. It took until the 1950’s before it was curable with antibiotics and the number of cases dropped sharply.

And yet, TB is still present and over one million people will die of tuberculosis this year alone! The disease, its evolution to an antibiotic-resistant strain, and its ongoing stigma are horribly impacting large populations of the world – especially places with war, poverty, racism, and scarce medical facilities. People are dying who shouldn’t, and by and large, the Western world doesn’t care enough to send help. That situation has intensified with the Trump cuts, and Green’s frustration is sure to be shared by every reader.

This is a fascinating story and a horrifying one. It is packed with historical and medical details that demand to be shared. It is a “listen-to-this” book and anyone reading it will start to see how tuberculosis is indeed everything in our past and current history.

While published adult, this is a great choice for teen collections.

Rebecca Stead Takes on Change

Lynn: Change is hard for most of us. For young children it is especially difficult as they often aren’t old enough to really understand why change is happening. And importantly, kids seldom feel any power to affect those changes that seem so overwhelming. I think many adults are feeling that same helplessness in these chaotic times.

Award-winning author Rebecca Stead makes her picture book authorial debut with a book about change and how one small family addresses it. Anything (Chronicle, 2025), is guaranteed to go straight to a reader’s heart, young or old, and to offer one way to take on something out of our control.

A young girl narrates her story of a day in a new apartment where her Dad has a chocolate cake waiting. He says it is a birthday cake for the new apartment and tells her she can have three anything wishes. “A rainbow for my room,” is the first wish, she tells him, and colors appear on the white pages for the first time as he paints a huge rainbow on the wall. The girl saves her wishes for a bit, but she makes silent wishes all related to going back to their old apartment, none of which come true. 

Stead’s beautifully understated and authentic prose makes it clear that both the father and the child are regretting the change and both are working hard at protecting the other. The father’s actions are so understanding of the child’s feelings and his imaginative responses so wise, especially to the big Third Wish. The resolution will be satisfying to young readers and bring tears to adults.

The powerful partner to Stead’s evocative writing is Gracey Zhang’s artwork. Plain white backgrounds are the ideal backdrop for the small vignettes and full-page drawings. Zhang uses ballpoint pen and gouache to great effect. The scratchy sketches have the feel of a child’s crayon drawings and are deeply expressive despite the simple lines.

This is a powerful book that will speak to so many and that stays in the reader’s hearts and minds. Anything makes a terrific read-aloud and discussion starter, both in a classroom or in a family struggling with changes of their own. This is a must purchase!